by Derrick Broze, Activist Post:
The United Nations will gather in New York City on September 18th and 19th for the Sustainable Development Goals Summit 2023 as part of an effort to recommit the world to achieving the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. This is only the second time the SDG Summit has been convened since the adoption of the 17 SDGs by Heads of State and Governments of all UN Member States in September 2015.
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The UN SDGs are a collection of 17 interlinked goals designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all”. The SDGs were set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly with the intention of achieving them by the year 2030. The SDGs were part of a larger resolution known as the 2030 Agenda, or Agenda 2030, ostensibly aimed at fighting climate change.
The UN says the SDG Summit will mark the halfway point to the deadline for Agenda 2030 and the SDGs. The Summit will also mark a “new phase of accelerated progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals with high-level political guidance on transformative and accelerated actions leading up to 2030”. The UN is hoping the Summit will “reignite a sense of hope, optimism, and enthusiasm for the 2030 Agenda”.
The UN has also stated that achieving the SDGs by 2030 will require “bold, ambitious, accelerated, and transformative actions are needed in key areas, anchored in international solidarity and effective cooperation at all levels”.
The Summit is being convened by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and will be attended by heads of state from the United States, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Japan, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Qatar, Senegal, Mozambique, and many other nations, as well as Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, the President of the World Bank, and other diplomatic officials.
The Summit includes conversations with various leaders discussing topics such as “Mobilizing finance and investments and the means of implementation for SDG achievement”, where we should expect to see a push for more environmental, social, and governance (ESG) schemes. ESG investing is also sometimes referred to as sustainable investing, responsible investing, or socially responsible investing (SRI). Environmental, social, and governance standards give socially conscious investors an opportunity to screen which types of corporations they want to endorse. The practice has also become an increasingly popular way to promote the SDGs.
As part of the SDG Summit the UN is also launching several campaigns to garner public support for more financing and moral support for the SGDs and Agenda 2030. One such campaign is a trailer called “Halftime for the Global Goals“. The message of the trailer is summed up with one line: “We’re down at half time, but any match is won in the second half”. The goal of the short video is to inspire and motivate the viewer into supporting the push for the SDGs. The video ends with the hashtag #ImagineWinning. The Halftime Show theme will continue on Monday with musical performers and speakers marking the beginning of the SDG Summit.
The United Nations Fears the 2030 Agenda Is Failing
Preparation for the SDG Summit comes after UN Secretary-General Guterres revealed in April that progress to completion of the SDGs was failing, with only 12 percent of the SDGs on track to be completed.
Guterres said progress on 50 percent of the goals is “weak and insufficient”, while 30 percent of the SDGs have “stalled or gone into reverse”. He predicted that if the current trend holds only 30 percent of nations will accomplish SDG1, focused on poverty, by 2030.
“Unless we act now, the 2030 Agenda will become an epitaph for a world that might have been”, Guterres stated.
Secretary-General Guterres also discussed his so-called “SDG Stimulus”, a plea for the G20 nations to commit to a $500 billion annual stimulus to help complete the SDGs by 2030. Guterres first made this plea in February, stating, “We need to massively scale up affordable long-term financing by aligning all financing flows to the SDGs and improving the terms of lending of multilateral development banks”.
Guterres said the SDG Stimulus plan also includes five other recommendations, including calling on all UN Member States to “recommit to action to achieve the SDGs at national and international levels between now and 2030”. Guterres suggests doing this by “strengthening the social contract” and “reorienting their economies towards low-carbon, resilient pathways aligned with the Paris Agreement”.
